This case study explains how food manufacturer Kraft Heinz wanted to improve sales of its homemade desserts in the US.

Only 12% of dinners made in America in 2014 ended with homemade dessert but 20 years ago, it was double and Kraft Heinz needed to increase brand favourability to drive sales of its dry packaged desserts business.

Kraft Heinz's audience was too broad to target effectively so it identified more exact micro-targets, each with their own challenge.

It used data to predict which dessert recipes would go viral throughout the holiday season and sourced recipe content that included Kraft Heinz's dry packaged dessert brands as ingredients, and within 48 hours, just as the trending recipes started to explode virally across social media, it used dynamic ad-serving technology to automatically feature these recipes in its digital units.

The campaign drove a 2% incremental sales lift among those exposed to it, which helped Kraft Heinz succeed in taking one share point away from competitors in the category.

3

Maggi: #WELCOMEBACKMAGGI

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Warc Prize for Asian Strategy, Bronze, 2016

This case study shows how Maggi, a food brand, regained consumer trust in India after being labelled hazardous for consumption.

This case study shows how Maggi, a food brand, regained consumer trust in India after being labelled hazardous for consumption.

When the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India labeled Maggi as unsafe, after allegedly finding lead levels beyond permissible limits in the products, the brand faced a government ban and a crash in consumer trust.

Maggi devised a campaign that played on the fact that its products were removed from the shops, focusing on how much some customers missed them.

A social media campaign with the hashtag #wemissyoutoo was created to reply to these consumers, while ads celebrating the centenary of its mother brand, Nestlé, in India and ads celebrating Maggi's comeback, were launched post-investigation.

As a result, brand trust climbed to 79% and 60,000 #welcomeback packs of Maggi were sold in five minutes.

4

Kraft Mac and Cheese: The World's Largest Blind Taste Test

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Jay Chiat Strategic Excellence Awards, Grand Prix and Gold, 2016

This case study shows how Kraft Foods, an American food producer, announced the biggest change in its popular Blue Box Kraft Mac & Cheese by not saying a word about it.

This article provides excerpts from the winning case studies of the 2016 David Ogilvy Awards, including campaigns from Nestle, Boeing and Ontario Women's Directorate. View Summary

This article provides excerpts from the winning case studies of the 2016 David Ogilvy Awards, including campaigns from Nestle, Boeing and Ontario Women's Directorate. The David Ogilvy Awards celebrate the extraordinary and/or creative use of research in the advertising development processes of research firms, advertising agencies, and advertisers. The Grand Ogilvy was won by Nestle Lean Cuisine's #WeighThis campaign, which largely contributed to the brand's first sales increase in six years. Other Gold winners include Boeing: Boeing Innovation Series, The Clorox Co. - Kingsford Charcoal: United We Grill, Ontario Women's Directorate: #WhoWillYouHelp, and truth: Finish It.

This article outlines how Nestlé India approached relaunching the Maggi brand following a food safety crisis, as well its approach to building brand equity for relaunched KitKat & Nescafé products.

Nestlé had long aligned its brands with messages of health and safety in India - when the company has hit with its biggest ever PR crisis in the country, the Maggi product ban, a total strategic rethink was required.

Even in a crisis, Nestlé believes brands shouldn't play safe - communications that try to be safe can go flat and may be even uninspiring.

When Maggi was re-launched, the focus was on a digital campaign which highlighted reconciliation stories from ordinary people who felt a trust deficit, dealing with the perception of mistrust head on.

This case study shows how Lean Cuisine went against the grain of its category with a data-based social media campaign based on female empowerment in the US.

Lean Cuisine was facing declining sales due to strong negative associations with the brand - people were feeling less and less happy about the concept of "diet", and instead wanted to adopt a healthier lifestyle in general.

To respond to this, the brand employed social listening to monitor light users, and uncovered a growing national conversation rooted in recognizing women for their accomplishments.

In response, it launched #WeighThis, a social conversation around women wanting to be "weighed" by their successes and accomplishments - a message amplified by influencers, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter ads.

Following the campaign, Lean Cuisine achieved 3m mentions, and negative conversation decreased from 25% to 4% and was replaced by a much more positive, emotional conversation.

11

Marie Callendar's Comforts from Home

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MAA Worldwide GLOBES, Order of Excellence, 2015

This case study details how ConAgra Foods, an American packaged food company, promoted its Marie Callender's frozen foods brand in the U.S. market.

This report describes how US food brands have successfully relaunched.

Repositioning allows established brands to introduce their products to a new generation of consumers: Twinkies, the iconic cake brand, returned from bankruptcy and appealed to millennials with a multi-platform campaign.

A relaunch can also motivate food brands to diversify their communication methods and challenge customer perceptions; the cookie brand Oreo surprised consumers with an innovative campaign played out on social media.

Relaunching also provides brands with the opportunity to present new creative executions and establish a consistent brand story, as illustrated by Twix, the chocolate brand, creating a distinctive campaign which led to cohesive marketing across the world.

Finally, a relaunch can help brands address perceived failings identified in consumer research: Domino's Pizza undertook extensive customer research and then used a relaunch to apologize for its performance.

13

Lactalis, Groupe (Food)

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Euromonitor Profiles, January 2016

This Company Profile from Euromonitor provides key details and analysis of Lactalis, Groupe. Included is a strategic evaluation with key facts about the French company, competitive positioning against comparative brands, and assessment of its position in the food market. View Summary

This Company Profile from Euromonitor provides key details and analysis of Lactalis, Groupe. Included is a strategic evaluation with key facts about the French company, competitive positioning against comparative brands, and assessment of its position in the food market. Brand opportunities and strategy are identified and recommendations for the future offered.

14

Nestle Lean Cuisine: #WeighThis

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ARF Ogilvy Awards, Grand Ogilvy and Gold, Social media, 2016

This case study describes how Nestlé's Lean Cuisine used a moving social campaign to connect with American women emotionally and reverse years of sales declines.

This case study describes how Nestlé's Lean Cuisine used a moving social campaign to connect with American women emotionally and reverse years of sales declines.

Lean Cuisine experienced five years of continuous sales decline and understood it needed to reposition its message and reassert the brand.

It used social segmentation and brand perception analysis to learn that Lean Cuisine conversations were functional and lacked emotional relevance.

The #WeighThis campaign was created to challenge a society that continues to judge women by appearance and to prove to key female consumers that Lean Cuisine was relevant to their lives.

The centre of the campaign was a powerful video of real women weighing their life accomplishments in lieu of their bodies.

#WeighThis was crucial to the brand seeing its first sales increase in six years despite a decline in media spend year-over-year; the campaign's main video also contributed to an impressive 33% increase in positive brand perception.

15

Uni Noodle: House of Little Moments

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AME Awards, Gold and Silver, 2016

This case study describes how Uni-Noodle, the Taiwan-based instant noodle brand, developed an emotional connection with young customers.

This case study describes how Uni-Noodle, the Taiwan-based instant noodle brand, developed an emotional connection with young customers.

Uni-Noodle struggled with keeping its proudly basic flavour while other competitors started to create variety with lots of condiments.

Insight came from the fact that having instant noodles was a sweet moment that customers allowed themselves; the strategy was to season Uni-Noodle with moods.

Taking advantage of the plain flavour, the campaign was able to invent various fusions to be served at a fictional shop, and filmed a micro movie series to be broadcast online and on mobile, with teasers on TV.

The movies were staged in the 'House of Little Moments' where the owner makes dishes inspired by customers' moods.

Sales increased 37% as a result of the movies, gaining over 8 million views; people loved the idea of the shop so much that Uni-Noodle opened a shop that served dishes to reflect customers' moods; the brand is now a market leader in Taiwan.

This case study describes how McCain's #Modifry campaign made use of foodie culture and inspired Canadian consumers to think about fries differently.

McCain was one of Canada's most loved brands, but it was still suffering from the increasingly negative perceptions of frozen food processing and the tendency to limit frozen foods in favour of fresh or gourmet ingredients.

The #Modifry campaign called on consumers to elevate everyday fries by preparing them with more interesting and artisan ingredients - such as cheese and chives superfries or pulled pork and BBQ sauce superfries.

This campaign made use of influencer partnerships, chef endorsements, user-generated content and scalable content that was made to suit each platform and media opportunity.

#Modifry had over 500,000 social engagements on Facebook and Twitter, while the 7% growth (versus the year before) was double its target; it also achieved a 26% rise in brand association amongst the key target audience of adult-only households.

This case study describes how Kraft USA tweaked the Kraft Hockeyville concept that was successful in Canada in order to have a similar national program in the US.

Kraft USA was at a disadvantage to its competition as it lacked a truly national program to drive sales and build consumer loyalty.

The Kraft Hockeyville concept was introduced to the US as a community-building program that was focused upon encouraging passionate hockey communities to express their love for the sport.

This was communicated through, amongst other things, TV ads, in-game ads, ten mini documentaries and a social media presence; all the media and content were connected by the core rallying cry: "For the Love of Hockey".

The top 20 customers in the Northeast and Central regions (excluding Wal-Mart and Target) participated and Kraft Hockeyville USA enjoyed a ROI of $1.15 for every $1 invested in the program.

This case study explains how Arctic Gardens, the Canadian frozen food brand, increased its sales with its "recipes" line.

Sales of frozen veg had been slipping for three years, an undifferentiated category led by price sensitivity; demand for fresh veg was also growing.

The campaign targeted people who balance work and family; women are still responsible for meals in 80% of households, and a growing selection of foods means that 'eating well' has become more complicated.

The negative opinion of frozen veg had to be overcome; the brand had to be more important than the price to provide a simple and positive solution: Arctic Gardens would get children to eat vegetables.

Arctic Gardens encouraged parents to break the rules (a little) when getting their children to eat vegetables; spots featured children lying to their parents in a variety of everyday situations, and then ask, "Are these vegetables?" at the table; the parent is then allowed a small lie of their own: "No, it's Oriental Soup".

Results: in Quebec, a sales increase of 49% in soups, with 80% of Quebecers appreciating the ad, increasing approval ratings by 18%.

This case study details how the vegeterian frozen food brand Goodlife reframed its image to make its prducts appealing to all, and not just a sacrifice that vegetarians had to make.

Though the brand was a leader, the market was limited; to expand, it had to draw in people seeking a healthy lifestyle by reducing meat intake, an opportunity to increase from a market of three million to 16 million.

For this larger potential audience, the main barrier was the perceived lack of taste and sustenance of meat-free meals: 'inspiringly vegtastic food' informed both the product and brand development.

Creative sought to make 'veg the hero' by stacking the visual architecture to display all of the ingredients within the products; the naive, hand-drawn aesthetic conveyed integrity and honesty.

Total sales increased by 66% with sales in Waitrose alone rising by 64%, as did engagement: gaining an 8.3/10 top of box appeal from its unconventional vertical packaging.

This case study details how Crosse & Blackwell, the British tinned soup brand, increased sales in a period of market decline by redesigning the brand to 'own Britishness'.

The tinned soup market in the UK had been in steady decline for years, both in volume and value, in favour of fresh and home-made soups.

Design focused on the untold story of the brand's loyalty to local suppliers; the reality of both its heritage and operation involved a fully integrated campaign based on reclaiming 'roots'.

In so doing, the campaign tapped into a broader trend of consumers seeking quality ingredients from local providers; Crosse & Blackwell's historical connection to good provenance became a pillar of brand identity.

TV, radio, print and supermarket adverts followed the themes of heritage, provenance and quality, showing real farmers at work on the ingredients.

Not a subscriber?View this report hereThis report describes how US food brands have launched successful advertising campaigns that persuade consumers to increase their product consumption occasions.

The creation of new consumption occasions provides food brands with an opportunity to reposition and reach new audiences, and it can be an effective way to revitalize a brand and curb declining sales.

Kraft's Mac and Cheese is an example of an established brand overhauling its advertising in the face of declining sales: after 50 years of advertising to children, it decided to target parents instead.

Advertising new consumption occasions can also refresh a brand's image and challenge perceptions.

Other successful campaigns have leveraged social media platforms and persuaded consumers to interact further online, leading to greater engagement and valuable customer insights.

22

Kraft Heinz Co (Food)

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Euromonitor Profiles, December 2015

This Company Profile from Euromonitor provides key details and analysis of Kraft Heinz Co. Included is a strategic evaluation with key facts about the US company, competitive positioning against comparative brands, and assessment of its position in the food market. View Summary

This Company Profile from Euromonitor provides key details and analysis of Kraft Heinz Co. Included is a strategic evaluation with key facts about the US company, competitive positioning against comparative brands, and assessment of its position in the food market. Brand opportunities and strategy are identified and recommendations for the future offered.

This case study explores how Uncle Ben's, the food brand, crafted the Ben's Beginners campaign in the UK with the specific aim of making parents more likely to cook with their children.

Research showed that at least a quarter of parents never cook with their kids.

The campaign sought to inspire parents by producing a film that captured the reactions of real family buyers looking around a house without a kitchen; this was shared on YouTube and seeded with relevant media.

It also produced Saturday Shows, designed as a unique blend of weekend morning cooking shows and kids' TV, that would deliver a recipe in an engaging way to both audiences.

Kitchenless Home was viewed over 1.3 million times and the 12 cooking shows over 3.5 million times, and research showed that more than 300,000 parents are cooking more with their children.

This paper demonstrates how 7-Eleven, the convenience store chain, used shopper research to grow consideration in the foodservice category in Australia and deliver increased profit.

7-Eleven aims to achieve sustainable profit growth in the foodservice, or fresh 'Food on the Go' (FotG), category but despite developing its own line of fresh food to challenge perceptions of low quality and freshness, active consideration had stalled.

Objectives included identifying the space 7-Eleven occupies in the FotG market, analysis of consumer attitudes, and developing insight into the drivers of the category and the barriers to buying at 7-Eleven.

The research solution took place over four stages of shopper-focused qualitative and quantitative methodology: knowledge audit; shopping expeditions and emotional association tasks; quantification; and an implementation workshop.

This identified opportunities to boost FotG performance across a two-stage reinvention of the category at 7-Eleven, including offering rationalisation, staff training, a new brand architecture and a new design store.

The strategy increased gross profit by 16.5% and grew active brand consideration from 44% in June 2014 to 63% in January 2015, while competitors' stores remained unchanged.